Covered bridges return one year after Irene

The covered bridge, an age old tradition in the Green Mountain State, was badly scarred during Tropical Storm Irene. Many of the 100 or so spans across Vermont were damaged. Some even closed for good, but they’re coming back.

“It was almost surreal,” said Tim Cullenen, municipal manager for Rockingham-Bellows Falls. “A couple of people have referred to it as looking almost like a dinosaur.”

Cullenen describes the wreckage of the Bartonsville Covered Bridge. The 140-year-old structure ended up twisted hundreds of feet downstream on the Williams River.

Irene’s flood waters took the 170-foot long bridge away.

“Surprisingly the bridge was almost intact or at least in big pieces,” Cullenen said. “It was just -- unbelievable.”

A year later, the site looks very different. The water in the Williams is low. Above it, a temporary bridge connecting Rockingham to Lower Bartonsville is back.

New abutments with steel pilings down to the bedrock hold the steel, one-lane span in place.

It’s been there since February and will be taken down this fall to make way for the new covered bridge. It will look just like the old one, but slightly longer and stronger. Engineers hope it will hold up to Irene-like events in the years to come.

“This is very utilitarian,” Cullenen said pointing to the temporary structure. “It does what it's supposed to do but it's nowhere near what we had before and what we intend to have in the future.”

Cullenen hopes the new Bartonsville Bridge will be in place by February. It’s a similar story about 30 miles north in Quechee. Residents there hope their new covered bridge will be installed in December.

The old covered bridge was still standing after Irene, but was badly damaged. Water and debris flowing down the Ottaquechee River pummeled the wood structure for hours on end.

“The water actually got up to street level -- to Quechee Main Street, which essentially was surrounding the bridge on either side,” said Ross Evans, communications director for Simon Pearce.

The famous glassblower’s mill sits a few hundred yards down the road from the bridge. Without it, many visitors have found themselves lost trying to get to Pearce.

“Now that the bridge has been removed, it's about communicating that it's about progress and that we're going to get this brand new bridge that's going to be even better,” Evans said.

Perched above the Ottaquechee, workers at the mill have a front row seat as crews prepare the abutments for the new, longer and wider Quechee Bridge. It’s expected to be 18 feet longer, 2 feet wider and several inches higher.

Simon Pearce fans across the country are also awaiting the new bridge, Evans said.

“Because they know what we've been through, they know what the state's been through and now that the bridge is gone and the new one's coming -- it's all about moving forward,” Evans said.

Officials hope the new Quechee Bridge will be ready for traffic by the beginning of December, until then, traffic continues to be shuffled around Route 4.